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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon argued today that his department’s $30-million deficit won’t disappear without better management of court dockets and better use of the tethering program to reduce the jail populations.

“We don’t control the jail population,” Napoleon told members of the Wayne County Commission’s Ways and Means committee during its meeting at the Guardian Building. “Until such time as the inmate population goes down, you are not going to be able to get the (budget balanced). We just have to accept that’s the fact.”

A letter to the committee from Suzanne Hall, the sheriff’s director of administration, said that the jail population was 448 inmates over its capacity. The letter also stated ways the department was looking at reducing the number of filled beds through residential placement, more prompt sentencing hearings and alternative housing for felons eligible for mental health system housing.

It was the third meeting this month between members of the commission and the sheriff’s office. The first meeting, on June 4, laid out a plan by the Ways and Means committee to get the department operating at budget, which included eliminating the transportation unit, which brings suspects to the jail from the county’s 43 municipalities, and the Internet Crimes Unit, known for its work apprehending adults seeking sexual encounters with minors. The full commission postponed consideration of the deficit elimination plan because of progress being made with the sheriff’s office on the deficit.

The sheriff’s office has suggested assigning civilian workers to jail duties currently handled by deputies and hiring a pool of full-time employees at a lower rate to add to the staff. Today, Hall said reductions also were being sought in sheriff’s office appointees and take-home vehicles.

Kevin Haney, the county’s director of budget and planning, said the county’s current deficit sits just under $40 million. Of that, about $30 million is from the sheriff’s office, and about $9 million is from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

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Jeriel Heard, the chief of jails and courts for the sheriff’s office, said beds in the Wayne County Jail could be emptied by using more tethers, which are used to monitor convicts and some suspects who are not housed in the jail. The cost for a tether is $20 daily. It costs $145 to house one inmate in the Wayne County Jail for a day, Heard said.

Commissioner Shannon Price expressed concern with who was being tethered as opposed to being housed at the jail.

“We’re putting a lot of people on tethers that perhaps shouldn’t be put on a tether,” said Price, R-Canton.

“We’re doing that as a way to keep the cost down,” Napoleon said of the tethering program. “If you want, we’ll take all 500, 600 people we have on tether and put them back in the jail.”

“All I’ve said all along is let’s look at every alternative and put everything on the table here,” Price said.

Commissioner Richard LeBlanc, D-Westland, asked why more employees were not hired to help with the jail staffing shortage that has led to much of the department’s deficit because of overtime. Napoleon said it was a question he wishes he could answer.

“I have been asking that question for years,” Napoleon said. “Why are we paying overtime at time and a half when I have deputies in the jail who are passing out because they’re working so much overtime. ... I’ve not gotten an answer to that question.”